A “war of red versus blue states, and of federal versus state governments,” as described by The New Yorker, has been expanding over recent weeks. It appears this may soon come to a head.
On Friday night, a Texas federal judge ordered a hold on the approval of mifepristone, a commonly used abortion pill. Just one hour later, a Washington state judge gave the opposite ruling, preserving the drug in 17 states. The competing orders make it likely that the issue will move upward to the Supreme Court.
The Texas ruling will not go into effect until next week, to allow time for appeals from above. In a statement issued by the White House, Joe Biden yesterday confirmed that his administration “will fight this ruling.”
Much has already been written about the fact that the federal judge, Matthew Kacsmaryk, is a Christian conservative who was appointed by Donald Trump. The Washington Post, in a lengthy profile piece, described him as a “thorough and analytical legal thinker but who also comes to his judicial work with a long history of activism rooted in his religious beliefs,” adding that “liberal advocates accuse Kacsmaryk of making decisions based on personal ideology rather than the law.” In contrast, readers of the daily newspapers will struggle even to find the name of the Barack Obama-appointed Washington state judge, Thomas Owen Rice, who ruled in favour of the abortion drug, never mind come across a profile piece in The Washington Post.
President Biden dismissed the Texas ruling as a “political” and “ideological” attack. Pro-abortion organisation Planned Parenthood added that it “exposes the weaponisation of our judicial system to further restrict abortion nationwide.”
On the other end of the spectrum, Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative legal advocacy group, said the order was a “significant victory for the doctors and medical associations we represent and more importantly, the health and safety of women and girls.” America’s legal and political minds will now be readying themselves for the next, more intense stages of the abortion pill debate.
